Sojitz unit, Dutch resin maker tie up

Sojitz Planet Corp., a wholly owned arm of trading house Sojitz Corp., said Monday it has agreed to tie up with Synbra of the Netherlands to market the major Dutch resin maker’s highly heat-resistant resin derived from sugar cane in Japan and other Asian countries.

The heat-deflection temperature of the polylactic bioresin called Synterra is around 120 C, compared with 50-60 C for conventional polylactic resins, Sojitz Planet said, adding the bioresin also has good anti-impact strength and is highly moldable.

These properties make it ideal as an alternative material for automobile, consumer electronics and office machinery parts that have so far depended on such materials as polystyrenes, polycarbonates and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resins, widely known as ABS resins, it said.